Libera St Patrick’s Catholic Cathedral Armagh Friday 9th August 2013 !! Angels From On High What Child Is This The Wexford Carol In Dulci Jubilo Away In Manger Joy To The World Once In Royal David's City Sanctus Danny Boy Gaudete Carol Of The Bells God Rest You Merry Gentlemen O Holy Night Still Still Still Armagh Exultate Silent Night Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas LIBERA MARC ALVARES, HENRY BARRINGTON, ANTHONY BLAKE, CIARAN BRADBURY-HICKEY GABRIEL COLLINS, JUDE COLLINS, KAVANA CROSSLEY, TIARNAN BRANSON THOMAS DELGADO-LITTLE, DYLAN DUFFY, BENJAMIN FAIRMAN, DANIEL FONTANNAZ ALEXANDER GULA, MATTHEW JANSEN, ALEX LEGGETT, SAM LEGGETT, ISAAC LONDON ALESSANDRO MACKINNON-BOTTI, JOSHUA MADINE, MATTHEW MADINE, EOGHAN MCCARTHY MICHAEL MENEZES, ALEXANDER MONTORO, KUBA NIEDERMAIER-REED, CASSIUS O’CONNELL-WHITE MATTHEW RANGEL-ALVARES, CARLOS RODRIGUEZ, RALPH SKAN, MICHAEL USTYNOVYCH-REPA, SAM WIGGIN, LUCAS WOOD MUSICAL DIRECTOR – ROBERT PRIZEMAN KEYBOARDS – STEVEN GERAGHTY PERCUSSION – SIMON ROTH, TONY QUINN STRINGS – ZOE CONWAY, SYLVIA ROBERTS, NICOLE HUDSON, AILBHE MCDONAGH, DAN BODWELL WOODWIND – JESSIE GRIMES, PADDY MCERLEAN, BRIAN DUNNING GUITAR – JOHN MCINTYRE SOUND MIXING & PRODUCTION – SAM COATES About Tonight's Concert Thank you for joining us for this 'seasonal' event! Our concert is being filmed and will be released on DVD in time, we hope, for Christmas. It may also in due course be seen on television. Some of the camera shots may include audience members, so your presence here tonight is taken to signify that you are happy to be seen in this production. If you are not in agreement with this, please have a word with one of the stewards. The nature of filming means that the cameras may need to reposition between items, so there may be some pauses between songs. One of the boys or the floor manager will explain what is happening. Please feel free to respond appropriately to the performances. The boys will be greatly encouraged by a warm reception! The programme is subject to change. Please note that all forms of recording, video filming, photography, use of mobile phone cameras etc are strictly prohibited. LIBERA If you have never heard the unique, heavenly sound of LIBERA, then prepare yourself for something very special indeed. The boys who make up the South London based vocal band Libera have been described as “normal” and “ordinary”. However, as their recordings and performances demonstrate, the music they produce is anything but. With shimmering, mystical chords and ecstatic harmonies they are unlike any other group you have ever heard. These are truly sounds to lift the soul. Familiar to audiences across the world, the boys have a stunningly original sound, which is at once both ancient and modern. Their distinctive flowing white robes symbolise the traditional origins of their style - yet their music reaches across the generations to a new mainstream audience. Libera’s success in album charts around the world bears witness to the extraordinary appeal of this unique ‘boy band’. Enchanting audiences wherever they go, they have attracted an enthusiastic fan base in many countries, particularly the US, UK, Japan, the Philippines and South Korea. The group is well known to British audiences through TV appearances and staged concerts at venues as diverse as the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Grassington Festival, Abbey Road Studios and Arundel Cathedral. Recent appearances have included the Edinburgh Fringe festival, the National Concert Hall in Dublin and at St Peter’s Cathedral in Belfast. Libera have made many TV appearances including BBC-TV’s ‘Last Choir Standing’, on which the Libera boys were featured as guests. They were winners of the Saturday night show ‘When Will I Be Famous’ and had a whole documentary devoted to them on BBC-TV’s ‘Songs of Praise’. Other TV/Radio appearances have included BBC Breakfast and the Chris Evans Show. The boys are regularly to be heard on Classic FM, and last Christmas scored the top classical song download at iTunes. Libera regularly sing at events and services in cathedrals and churches like Buckfast Abbey and Westminster Cathedral. In the US & Canada, Libera are known through their concert tours and TV appearances including a nationwide PBS special, which was filmed in Holland. The boys had their debut at the Kennedy Center Honors, where they performed in front of the President and a hall full of celebrities - including Robert de Niro, Cameron Diaz, Diana Ross and Steve Martin. The boys were privileged to close the Kennedy Center Honours with a moving tribute to honoree Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. This was followed by Libera’s participation in the Papal Mass at the climax of Pope Benedict XVI’s first visit to the USA. Performing to a capacity congregation of 65,000 at New York’s Yankee Stadium, Libera were the only British artists to take part in this historical event. Libera have travelled across North America several times, appearing in venues as diverse as the Crystal Cathedral in California, the St Louis Basilica, St Paul and Minneapolis cathedrals, the Moody Church in Chicago, the Riverside Church in NYC and other venues both secular and sacred from Texas to Toronto. Just recently they opened the annual Starkey Awards Gala in the Twin Cities, where they were featured artists on the same programme as Miley Cyrus and Meat Loaf. In East Asia, the sounds of Libera are frequently heard in mainstream TV and radio programmes and their CDs ride high in the classical and pop charts of countries like Japan, South Korea, Singapore and the Philippines. The boys have sung the music for several feature films and television programmes. The most recent tour packed out the major concert venue in Seoul and the boys were feted by thousands of enthusiastic fans who queued for hours to meet them and collect autographs. During their last tour in the Philippines, Libera topped the main album charts and sung at the major concert halls in Manila and Cebu, crammed full with excitable fans. Through their involvement in Libera, the boys have travelled the world, recorded movie soundtracks and CDs and served as backing singers to mega-stars. But, as one of the boys said, “The traveling and filming is fun but even if we didn’t go anywhere I’d still want to do it because I just love singing.” THE MUSIC OF LIBERA Libera is true to the meaning of its Latin title, ‘Free’, and crosses many musical boundaries. With original repertoire, innovative textures and inventive arrangements the group brings an imaginative new perspective to the landscape of vocal music. The core of the sound is built around the voices of the young singers with their clarity, enthusiasm and excitement - the haunting yet vibrant sound of the treble voice that has long been a feature of choral music, particularly in the church. Indeed, the defining inspiration for Libera sprang from the ancient music of the cathedrals and monasteries – from the earliest form of choral music - plainsong. The boys’ robes of course retain a visual continuation of that history and quite closely copy what the boy monks wore when they sang and were schooled in medieval monasteries. Libera mixes the traditional chants with contemporary instrumentation and arrangement. Hence songs like ‘Salva me’ and ‘Libera’ reflect the shapes and mood of the old plainchant whilst combining it with new lyrics and harmonies. In fact, the song ‘Libera’ was the first to be written for the group - it uses a single line of plainsong with many overlapping tunes and harmony, which encompass the full range of the boys’ voices. Some songs are arrangements of well-known classical works. Although the originals can not be bettered, some lend themselves to the uplifting sound and harmonies of the boys’ treble voices. The famous ‘Canon’ by Pachelbel, for instance, provides the basis for ‘Sanctus’ and an opportunity for some of the highest treble notes. The lyrics of Libera songs, many of which are sung in Latin, are most frequently drawn from a variety of contemplative and inspirational sources, both ancient and modern, including the Mass, Requiem Mass, Stabat Mater and the Psalms. Some of tonight’s music is not yet available to purchase - but we have plenty of songs to buy or download. To find out more visit our online shop www.libera.org.uk/shop or scan the image below with your smartphone. To make a donation to Libera visit our web site at www.libera.org.uk or text LBRA01 £10 to 70070 Thank you. Libera Round The World Cebu, Philippines | Taipei, Taiwan | Chicago, USA Hollywood, California, USA | Toronto, Canada | Seoul, South Korea Tokyo, Japan | Singapore Libera is a non-profit charity registered in the United Kingdom, and as such is dependent on the generous financial support of its private listeners around the world. Without this support we would be unable to hold public concerts of this nature. The cost of training and touring is close to £5,000 per chorister per year, much of which is not recovered through royalties, ticket or album sales. If you wish to consider supporting Libera, or know of someone who might, we would be delighted to hear from you at [email protected].